Seth, Saul, and the Bee

After twelve or thirteen rounds at the Kiwanis Club of Escalon's Annual Old Fashioned Spelling Bee, Seth got third place out of eighteen second graders! Saul also competed in the first grade contest even though he is in kindergarten. Seth spelled some difficult words including grandfather and aunt, as well as contractions like won't, without forgetting the apostrophe. He finally went out on the word sleek misspelling it S-L-E-A-K. Not too shabby! He got $5.00 and a nice white ribbon. Saul went two rounds and went out on as misspelling it A-Z-E. I couldn't be prouder of my boys!

Camel Toad

What can one expect when Duncan Atkinson wields his mighty Destroyer and I don the all powerful Les Paul? It has to be wicked, harmonic, and utterly Camel-esque! Our dueling guitars were laid down upon Toadstool Theatre's infamous, "Behold Her Name," and these pictures are evidence that we produced some solid rock sounds. Behold.

Chabot

Dad and I rode last Sunday at Chabot Lake. Dad rode the Specialized Hard Rock that Sherri and I found at the flea market on Saturday. It was windy in the valley, but it was pretty calm over in the bay area.Here is Dad at the top of the hill. We both made it without falling. Nice!

The Boys' Spring Pictures

Camping at New Melones

Our overnight trip to New Melones "Glory Hole" Recreation Area was, in the words of Borat, a great success. Sherri was bitten by the mountain biking bug, and I was just bitten by bugs. The boys said they liked swimming and skipping rocks more than bike riding, but they still rode and had fun. The VW made it there and back, although we had to let faster cars go around. On the way there, a truck was riding us and Sherri thought they were mad we were going too slow, then when they passed and waved, we saw that it was Mrs. Villines, Saul's kindergarten teacher who ended up camping at the same place where we camped. After the riding and camping, we stopped at our favorite pizza parlor in Angel's Camp, Mike's, and had pizza and salad. The boys fell asleep on the way home. I hope we do a lot more of this in the near future because it was so much fun.